


now we're finally standing up to the sky

by redledgers



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, mention of vaxleth - Freeform, post aramente, zephra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 05:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9706205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redledgers/pseuds/redledgers
Summary: Keyleth comes home after her Aramente and watches Vox Machina.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shippeh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippeh/gifts).



> title from woodkid's "the great escape"

She steps through the tree with as much grace as she can muster, but stops short a few feet away from the tree, and the rest of Vox Machina fans out around her. Coming home, even though this time is an expected visit, would always feel different than returning to the rebuilt keep or to Whitestone. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches her friends looking around Zephra and wonders if they can see the swirling eddies just past the edge of the cliff, the air dancing along the edges of an invisible barrier. She wonders if they see her people, free and full of love, the way she was when she first met them, the way she still is even though sometimes it doesn’t show the way it used to. Vax takes her hand and she looks at him, at his smile, and she follows the shine just past the closest building toward her approaching father.

Korren holds his arms open in greeting, and it’s all she can do not to run into them, hug her father for everything he’s done for her and everything he has yet to do, hug him for being her father and to make up for all the time she spent away from home. But she has completed her Aramente and should exude control for the sake of her title, so instead she steps forward and waits for him to get close enough for a hug. She’s missed this for all she loves her new family; she never thanked her father properly for his aid in the siege of Emon. The hug is over too soon, and she goes through the formalities of introductions.

Percy seems the most at home with Korren; perhaps because his noble status is more favorable than stuffy diplomats or because he knows how much family means to his best friend. But Keyleth hears him speak highly of her and she flushes, wants to duck behind Vax’s shoulder, wants to kiss his cheek like Vex does and thank him.

Vex’s eyes sparkle when Korren hugs her tightly, because she knows she is accepted here regardless of her heritage and especially regardless of her brother’s relationship. Later she will fly with the children of Zephra, circling the skies and letting them chase her (and Vax will join for a few precious moments, spiraling between Ashari and diving fast, a broom and black wings among invisible wind gusts). She laughs when she brings Trinket out in a puff of energy and scratches his ears because she should have let him out sooner.

Grog hangs back, towering until he steps forward and offers his hand. Keyleth smiles, his bowtie is askew and his dwarven hammer is slung over his shoulder but he’s never been more proud to be somewhere where he doesn’t have to fight (he loves fights too much, but he understands this event and after the ceremony he gives her a scroll with near illegible words _he wrote_ just for her). And if he mentions his love of Minxy during the exchange, no one cares, because it’s still a part of Keyleth that’s important.

Pike is gentle and cheery, echoing Percy’s thanks for the Ashari assistance, for bringing Keyleth to a point where she could leave home, make her own way, become a force to be reckoned with in her own right. And she is thanked for her diligence, for her protection (which makes her blush and duck because Pike is the sweetest friend that Keyleth has outside of herself).

Scanlan’s presence behind her, his bubbling and cheery self, doesn’t overshadow her. Bigby’s hand floats above him to shake Korren’s hand and when he gives his own handshake, the mage hand makes finger guns and makes Korren laugh. Afterward, he borrows instruments from the Ashari, uses his own, and sings raunchy songs about Keyleth’s adventures with Vox Machina when everyone is just drunk enough not to care. 

Vax is last, there is no need for a second introduction, and he is greeted warmly. He praises Keyleth as well, and reaches back for her to join him. She thinks there will be something more, because Vax doesn’t do things by halves; he fights like he lives, all or nothing. He has asked nothing, but it hangs over him, and she wishes she could pluck a star out of the sky, a special gust of wind, and present it to him with twisting vines and a promise.

They are shown to a house prepared for them, a place of family and solace and celebration because questions have been answered and a journey has been completed. In the dark whispers of candlelight, after dancing and declarations, he asks her for forever, and she says yes, offers an awkward flower because she thinks she should, and holds him while he laughs (and the laughter will rouse a sleeping bear who joins them with nuzzles and wuffs because he has so much love to give).


End file.
